PEM and sweating?

The other day, my caree suggested that there might be a link between over-exertion (in this case, a phone conversation with a friend, I think) and excessive sweating. Has anyone else had any experience of this?

 

Yep.

I've got quite the repertoire too.

There's the hot over temperature sweat but also, when I am sliding into a PEM pit, the feeling really cold yet sweating.

 

There is sweating during exertion. Here I do not seem to have spotted any pattern as to when it is excessive and when normal. But then also how do you decide what is excessive for someone who is over weight, unfit and ageing. However it is perhaps odd that at times I can do bits of housework and gardening without sweating and at other times I sweat excessively doing the same tasks.

Then there are night sweats, which can also occur when sleeping during the day. These are unambiguously associated with PEM, but also occur when my ME is in general bad. However when my ME is at its worst the basics of daily living trigger what is effectively ongoing PEM.

 

I have not noticed any additional sweating when in PEM per say.

But...things that are likely to cause PEM, such as working on something bent over, even when sitting, usually cause excessive dripping on whatever I'm working on. I have not noticed others experiencing the same thing.

I also have a tendency to sweat excessively, head and neck, sometimes upper chest, while unconscious due to being shut down because I've over done things.

It's difficult to say if these are as a result of PEM, as a lot of the time I am PEM'd.

It's also difficult to be sure due to the fact that I am overweight, not exactly fit, and 55.

I have not noticed people who are much larger than me sweating in situations where I have virtual rivers of the stuff coming off my head. Of course it's possible that even 25-30 stone people are much fitter than me so cope with the heat better.

Then of course there are those days when no matter what the heat where I either don't sweat or hardly do so - when I knew people, and went out, it used to bug the hell out of couple of them that they could be melting and I was perfectly comfortable and not sweating. The same guy who basically sat unmoving and sweated heavily for hours when they were perfectly comfortable or even cold, after traveling to their homes

So no idea if in my case sweating and PEM are connected in a simple manner or if it's just me being me.

 

My eyelids and eyebrows sweat when I am feeling particularly unwell.... and often my face goes very red. I can also have cold hands and feet at the same time!

 

My night sweats are also largely head, neck and chest which I find interesting. I can wake with my sheets and pillows soaked in the upper part of the bed, but from my waist down the sheets are dry.

 

This is the only type of PEM sweating I get. Exactly the same – head, neck, chest, and upper back, but completely dry from the armpits downwards. The sheets and pillowslips can be soaked through.

 

Oh, yes, the night sweats! Horrible!

Also recognise the sweating when no one else is - dripping with sweat... Ugh!

I really thought maybe it was very early menopause - I was just over 30 when I got sick, but then the occasional mysterious not sweating when everyone else was. There was the blazing hot summer's day on a beach - everyone boiling hot in their bikinis and me in a parka shivering. Or winter, everyone else in a parka and me sweating profusely in a t-shirt.

I had this "interesting" thing that intrigued a couple of colleagues when I was first ill - I would sweat and have rolling, alternate waves of icy coldness and fiery hotness that would start at the top of my head and roll down. Apparently, my colour would alternate from redness to extreme pallor and back again. I would feel horribly ill when it was happening.

 

My issue with PEM is that I get very hot but don't sweat so I would stay hot (no cooling down) all the time.

Now I"m in menopause so I have major night sweats and hot flashes, but haven't had PEM in 4 years so wouldn't know.

 

I stopped sweating around 20 years ago but even before then had no excessive sweating with exertion leading to PEM. Instead I now get really hot but don't sweat.

If possible I would try and take note of when this happens and see if there is a link to anything else. As an example if I was sitting up and holding the phone to my ear I would likely get POTS or some other blood /pressure/heart rate problems as my body struggles to pump blood. In some people this leads to sweating. Just an idea anyway.

 

I sweat excessively and have hyperhidrosis that’s got worse as my ME has progressed. It’s triggered by sitting and standing up and cognitive or physical exertion. Definitely linked to my PoTS and general sympathetic excess. Although some days I will hardly sweat at all whereas other days I will non-stop. I don’t fully understand it. Amongst the hot flushes and sweating I can still have freezing cold hands though!

 

I misread the title of this thread as "PEM and swearing?" and was just about to dive in.

Ahem.

I haven't noticed any increase in sweating since having ME, during PEM or otherwise.